Airborne 12.09.16

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Airborne 12.09.16

After decades of
secrecy, Air Force officials acknowledged Nov. 13 that
Communist-built fighters were flown at the Tonopah Test Range
northwest of Las Vegas, Nev.

From 1977 through 1988, the program, known as Constant Peg, saw
Air Force, Navy and Marine aircrews flying against Soviet-designed
MiG fighters as part of a training program where American pilots
could better learn how to defeat or evade the Communist bloc's
fighters of the day.

Brig. Gen. Hawk Carlisle, the 3rd Wing commander at Elmendorf
Air Force Base, Alaska, is a former member of the 4477th Test and
Evaluation Squadron and remembers the valuable training the unit
provided.

"CONSTANT PEG afforded pilots an opportunity to learn how to
fight enemy aircraft in a controlled, safe environment without
having to endure the risks of actual air combat," said General
Carlisle. "Typically a pilot would start with a basic
familiarization flight to observe the enemy airplane and study its
characteristics, practicing one-on-one defensive and offensive
maneuvers against it, and finally, experience multi-bogey
engagements high over the desert scrubland of the Nellis Air Force
Base ranges."

As a result of marginal
performance of American fighter forces in the skies over North
Vietnam, Constant Peg complemented other revolutionary training
programs such as Red Flag and Top Gun, and the Air Force and
Navy-Marine aggressor squadrons. The program also was intended to
eliminate the "buck fever" or nervous excitement many pilots
experience on their first few combat missions. Historical
experience indicated that pilots who survived their first ten
missions were much more likely to survive a complete combat tour,
and Constant Peg was intended to teach them the right "moves" to
enable them to come out on top of any engagement.

The end of the Constant Peg nearly coincided with the end of the
Cold War, by which time some of its graduates already had proven
themselves in actual air combat.

Threat aircraft flown by the Red Eagles spanned several decades
and technical generations of capability. There was the MiG-17
Fresco, a small, agile single-seat transonic fighter placed in
service just after the Korean War and used extensively over Vietnam
and the Middle East; the MiG-21 Fishbed (shown right), a high
supersonic fighter used world-wide in large numbers, and the
swing-wing MiG-23 Flogger, likewise in global service, an attempt
by the Soviets to match the sophisticated capabilities of the F-4
Phantom.

"Although it came too late to influence Vietnam, Constant Peg
training greatly influenced the success of American Airmen in
Desert Storm, who shot down 40 Iraqi fighters, many of which were
Fishbeds and Floggers," said General Carlisle.